The Royalties Sitting Unclaimed With Your Name on Them

It is 2 am in the studio. Five people in the room; everyone adds a line, and nobody writes anything down. Six months later the song is on radio everywhere, suddenly everyone says they wrote the hook, and the radio money never arrives.

Every song you release holds two copyrights: the recording, and the song itself (the melody and lyrics). Your distributor collects for the recording, but it usually does not collect your songwriting money. For that, each song must be registered with your collecting society, such as GHAMRO in Ghana or SAMRO in South Africa. If it is not, the money sits unclaimed and can end up paid to someone else.

Sign a split sheet on the day of every session, stating who wrote what percentage, then register the song. Do the same for your last three releases this week. Music Industry 101 shows you how publishing works and how to claim money you have already earned. Take the course on Crux Global Academy: cruxmusic.global/academycrux.